


Wild

by GalaxyAqua



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Tarzan Fusion, F/M, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-16
Updated: 2015-08-16
Packaged: 2018-04-15 00:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4586235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyAqua/pseuds/GalaxyAqua
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Princess Sonia Nevermind does not know how she got onto this island, but she's determined to find a way home no matter what. However, she doesn't account for a meeting with a man who has never seen another human's face; she doesn't account for learning of the immense beauty of the natural world - that she had for so long taken for granted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wild

**Author's Note:**

> I want to call this a tarzan au but I actually haven't seen tarzan in like 10 years so it's pretty much not related to tarzan at all

Sonia Nevermind opens her eyes to the feeling of gritty sand and being soaked to the bone. Her first instinct is to panic, but being an esteemed princess, she remembers she must keep a level head at all times! So she shoots up to her feet and brushes long blonde hair from her eyes to survey her surroundings, but finds, to her utmost surprise, that it is nothing familiar at all.  
  
There are dark, towering trees behind her, white sand beneath her feet, and the pristine blue sea stretches out endlessly before her, shooting towards the far horizon. The salty wind whistles through the foliage and over the crashing waves, and if she weren't dripping wet and freezing, she'd like to think that it was pleasant. At the very least, it's an immensely calm, and peaceful place, but! There is no time for sightseeing!  
  
She must at once find out her location, and then make a hurried return to Novoselic; for her mother's birthday awaits, and it would be terrible form not to show up.  
  
"Hello?" She calls out to the wilderness, cupping slender hands around her mouth. "Is anyone there?"  
  
There isn't a reply. She supposes that's to be expected – one would not find themselves stranded on a beach if people were around to help – but she's determined to get home, so she steps out of her shoes and peels down her socks and makes her way inland.  
  
She figures a little exercise would warm her up anyway, and she always did fashion herself quite the explorer.  
  
It's thrilling, in a way, to be so intimately in touch with nature, and Sonia feels a little adventurous clambering over gigantic logs and crossing shimmering, rock-laden creeks.  Her clothes dry remarkably quickly – the special material must have been certified indeed – and she's left with just occasionally wringing out her hair, or wiping sweat from her brow, when it comes to making herself presentable. Dainty little creatures scuttle by her, and she takes the rare chance to admire them in their habitats – much more comfortable to be observed than the animals back at Novoselic had been.  
  
In fact, they are so friendly that she finds a few birds perch on her shoulder to sing, and she giggles. One even nestled in her hair.  
  
"Oh, hello," she greets the tiny, fluttering creatures. They chirp cheerfully in response.  
  
Glad to have the company, Sonia marches forward and is surprised to note that the birds do not budge. She smiles at them, and their beady eyes look curiously back at her. "Looks like we're all in this together!" She says with great vigor, before continuing through the trees, making sure to be entirely aware of her surroundings.  
  
The sunlight filtering through the forest canopy lights her way, and Sonia dances across the shadows, taking in the smell and sounds of the environment as she makes her way through the foreign grounds. Eventually, the birds leave her, and she holds on to the hope that they will find her once again in the future.

Soon she falls into a rhythm of simply right foot before left, before right before left, and amuses herself with traditional Novoselic folk songs. Her voice travels through the forest much freer than it ever did in her kingdom, but she is suddenly swept with a wave of loneliness.  
  
She does not know how much time passes after that, but before she knows it, Sonia is deep, deep within the forest; where there is long grass growing and butterflies flit to and fro around her. Though the air is all the more sweet and lovely, Sonia begins to feel a little dread sinking in her stomach.  
  
Her journey continues to lead her to no ends. The crunch of leaves and squelch of mud under her bare feet soon begin to lose their magic, and she feels indescribably filthy. She takes this time to wonder again how she ended up on this island in the first place, and immense worry creeps into her when she wonders if getting back home was as easy as she initially thought.  
  
Everywhere she looked it seemed like the natural world thrived, and not an inch of civilisation is to be seen! Surely, if she were close to her kingdom, there would be small villages or towns to stop by? Or farms, even? Campsites?  
  
She sits herself down on a mossy log to rest and tries in vain to search her mind for a clue she may have forgotten. Nothing surfaces. Her memories seem to halt right where she woke up, and anything before was simply her life at the castle; where regalities and luxuries were prime, and her princess duties were unending. She wonders if anyone misses her.  
  
Sonia takes a deep breath of air, and pats down her puffy skirt.  
  
Then, a low growl and a heavy thud sounds out from behind her, and she jumps well into the air, hand poised over her mouth to stifle an unladylike scream.  
  
Leaping from the log, she whirls around to face the source of the noise – to come to the shock that a man stands before her; and she may be delirious, because she shouts, "Human!" at him, and he looks at her with the most perplexed expression on his face.  
  
She brings it down to shock, simply, so she mends her speech immediately, by saying, "Oh, I sincerely apologize, but I have not seen another human all day! I do not mean to scare you."  
  
He looks wary of her, but says nothing. She takes a moment to fully assess his appearance. His dark hair is unkempt, and he's wearing a torn black cloth like a toga, silver eyes sharp and scars littering every bit of skin Sonia can see - the most prominent one being a slash right down his face. He seems to have taken quite the fall, but judging by his lack of reaction, she wonders if this is perhaps a rather common occurrence.  
  
"... Are you alright?" she ventures hesitantly, clasping her hands together. She has never seen a man like this before. Perhaps he is a tribal man? A primitive? Or, her imagination runs a little here, a time-traveller?

She gazes at him for a while, but he does not grace her with a single word. He looks her over once, then, as if deeming she posed no danger whatsoever, the man sighs and starts away, strong arms hoisting himself back up the tree that Sonia assumes he had come from.

Not wanting to let this meeting slip through her fingers, the princess instantly reacts.  
  
"Wait!" She cries, rushing over and placing a hand on his shoulder. He snarls at her in response, shrugging her hand off and scampering up into the treetops like her touch had burned him. Determination fuels her spirit – for in any other case, Sonia would have just let the man go – and she follows him up the tree, taking dutiful care of the branches he used and didn't use, to get up.

She’s much weaker than she thought, and it becomes especially prominent when she gets herself tangled up in a net of branches; one of which leaves a scratch all the way down her leg. Nevertheless, she pulls herself up and out with a sudden burst of energy, and finally reaches the uppermost bough of the tree. Right beside the mysterious man.  
  
He looks bewildered when she joins him at the peak of the tree, and he abruptly moves to grab onto a vine and swings to the next; well out of her way. He then lands on the ground, cushioned by a pile of leaves and makes a run for it. She mimics the motion, hooking both her legs around a leafy vine, praying her hair does not get caught in something and pull her back. Her landing is less than graceful.  
  
"Come back!" She exclaims after him, as he darts across a log on all fours, before once again scaling a thick tree with little effort. Nuts and little berries begin to fall from the trees as she pursues him, but he knows the forest much better than she, and soon he is once again out of her sight.  
  
She slows, knowing that running blindly would lead her nowhere, and is distraught to find that she has somehow ended in a less than welcome area of the forest – with gnarly dry grass that pricks at her feet, and grey-brown boulders block her from proceeding any further. Sonia is more than a little concerned to see splatters of something across those boulders, but does not get close enough to investigate it.  
  
She looks back the way she came, and decides that it is the only way she can go now. So she goes to retrace her steps, the adrenaline leaving her. Her mood drops heavily, and she makes her way back to an indistinguishable path, thoroughly disheartened and distressed.  
  
She only gets so far, when she realizes she hasn't eaten in possibly hours – because her stomach grumbles loudly and startles her in the midst of the quiet. She presses her hands against her sides, trying to will it down. It does nothing for her, but she contemplates removing her belt. It’s not like there is anyone around to criticize her for not emphasizing her figure, after all.

She pulls it off, tosses it away, and lets her dress fill out where it may. The wind plays with her skirt, and she feels marginally better. The hunger eats at her a little more, but she hopes she can ignore it until she finds something that looks safe to eat.  
  
As she’s walking again, her foot comes in contact with something and she falls, her chin colliding with the soft earth beneath her as she does. “Princesses must learn to overcome adversity”, she recites to herself. She almost wishes she could just lie there and do nothing, but her mind tells her to be strong.

When she's back on her feet again, she jumps because she's just uncovered a patch of dirt where harsh white bone greets her and she backs away feeling sick. A little to the left is the remnants of a skull – but she doesn’t want to look at it any more than that. This nothing like the occult, she thinks, and she full out breaks into a sprint through the forest, wanting nothing more than to go home. To safety. To warmth, and love. To the civilisation that she must have taken for granted.

She doesn’t stop until she comes by a clearing, hands on her knees to catch her breath.  
  
Exhausted from the run, the chase, and the lengthy exploration beforehand, and the growing sense of starvation, the princess brings her knees to her chest and curls up in a ball at the base of a huge tree. Her hair falls like a curtain over her face, but she hasn’t the heart to move it away.

Instead, she grips tight to the green fabric of her dress, and starts to cry. They're only little sobs, though the tears run hot streaks down her face, but she doesn't care. Not a soul is around to see her, and not a soul will rescue her from this island. She's been abandoned, completely and utterly, and she's never going to be able to go home again. She'll end up like those bones – dead and rotting on this island for all eternity.  
  
She continues to cry, until her throat grows sore and the sky is dark and she's sure she looks like a mess but she simply does not care anymore. She doesn't even flinch when something round and hard hits her on the head, and rolls onto the ground in front of her.  
  
She reluctantly brings her head up to look at it, and is surprised to find that it is not round – but an oddly shaped block, of something that looks strikingly like a big, dented, potato. Sonia jerks her gaze upwards, to wherever the deformed potato had come from, and the movement of black in the treetops and gleaming silver eyes is all she needs to put two and two together.  
  
"Thank you!" she yells, a genuine smile lighting her face despite the tracks of tears and the distress in her brows. There is no response, but Sonia knows she has been heard. She nods once, to nobody in particular, swallows the remainder of her tears, reaching for the food object to examine it. It's hard as a rock, which is to be expected, and she logically thinks to cook it, and racks her brain for the tiniest survival course she took as a young child.  
  
"Dry sticks," she thinks aloud, "or was it grass? Logs... no, tree bark?"  
  
The answer ignites in her mind upon seeing the most perfect set of branches to the right of the clearing, and Sonia sets to work making a fire.  
  
It thankfully works out very quickly, and she gazes at the flickering flames with a sense of melancholy. She wants nothing more than to be rescued, but maybe she will have to rescue herself this time around. And knowing that someone is looking out for her – her eyes glance up at the treetops – is enough to keep her going for now.

She doesn’t know how to tell when the odd potato is cooked, but after a while of staring at it and poking it with a stick, she is surprised to find that it softened impressively, and she could poke holes right through it with ease. She rolls it out of the fire before her stick completely disintegrates, and blows on it to cool it down.

When she finally bites into the potato-like food the wild man had granted her with, Sonia doesn't know what to expect. What she gets is a burst of flavor – unlike the starch of common potatoes that she knows – and it is sweet on her tongue, and breaks easily between her teeth. The scent of it is divine, like fresh earth with a tang of salty air, and she indulges herself a little in it – as she does not know if she will be eating it again anytime soon.  
  
Her fire, which burns brightly in the mist of the clearing, provides a comfort to her like no other, and she figures that if she must stay a night on this island, then she has found the place to do so.  
  
She claps her hands together after her meal, and paces around the clearing, gathering moss and long grass and leaves to lay the foundation for a makeshift bed. She only turns away from the fire for a second, but when she turns back, she drops everything in surprise – because the man from earlier stands by the flames, glowering at it as if it were a monster rearing to attack him.  
  
She scuffles over, and shakes her head when he moves to touch the embers. "No." She tells him sternly. "You can't touch that. It will burn you, and that will be an awful burn!"  
  
He does not look like he comprehends her words, as he reaches out for it anyway, and she can do nothing but watch as he flinches back with a yelp and clutches his burnt fingers, moments after plunging them into the flames.  
  
Sonia suddenly comes to a realization, as to why he's been so quiet the entire time. Could he perhaps not know how to speak…? "Come with me," she says, taking care not to touch him as she gestures towards the forest. He doesn’t seem to understand. "Water," she sounds out, rubbing her fingers together, "you need to put water on your burn."  
  
He scowls at her, glares at the fire, and she shakes her head once more. "Come get water," she mimes waves with her arms, then points at his fingers. “For your burn. You need to put water on it.”  
  
He’s clever enough to at least understand the message, and sends one last scathing look at the flames before he obediently follows her on their quest to the closest creek. Luckily, as Sonia had no clue where the creek actually was, it appeared much closer than they expected, and she took this chance to wash her hands to show him what to do.

“Just put your hands in,” she says, taking a little delight in poking at the tiny fish swimming in the creek. “It’ll feel better, I promise.”

When he doesn’t move, she sits on the bank with her feet in the water and pats the spot beside her. “Come here,” she urges. “It’s okay.”

He does sit, though not at the spot she indicates, instead taking his place over a metre away from her, and does not touch the water. He has his burnt hand in a tight hold, and she decides to lead by example and copy his pose.

“Okay, so you’re sitting like this…” she nods, and he nods back, but she does not know if he can understand. “Now, put your hands,” she stretches out her fingers and submerges them gently into the creek, “into the water.”  
  
He follows her example, looking a little guilty, though she has no clue why. "There you go," she encourages him with a small smile. "Now, don't you go touching the fire again, okay?"  
  
Though he does not understand, he appears to get the message well enough, and to her surprise, echoes in a deep, hoarse voice; "O… okay."  
  
Sonia looks at him, eyes wide, and regards him with a sense of awe. Of all the things she was expecting, she had not expected him to try to speak with her directly. "Your voice..."  
  
He blinks, and frowns at her, repeating the sentence with an aura of stubbornness. "Your voice...?"  
  
She smiles, eyes bright, and she points to herself. "Sonia." She says.  
  
He points at her. "Sonia."  
  
She points back at him, "Are _you_ Sonia?"  
  
He shakes his head.  
  
"Good," she giggles, then points to him with both her hands. "You are...?"  
  
Confusion flickers in his silver eyes, and not knowing how to respond seems to frustrate him excessively. He runs a hand through his hair and growls under his breath, before snapping a twig from a tree and writing clumsy shapes in the dirt. Sonia peers curiously at his scribblings, sure that the man does not know what they mean but somehow memorized them anyway, and reads 田中 in the earth.  
  
She mentally thanks her parents for teaching her simple Japanese, and for this man to possess a fairly simple name: "Ta-na-ka," she reads aloud, then points to him with a tinge of excitement. "Tanaka."  
  
"Tanaka," he echoes slowly, suddenly gazing at her in amazement, as if she had solved a puzzle he had been trying to figure out for years. The moonlight reflects off his silver eyes and light up his face, and she wonders how long he's wanted to know what those characters meant. He points back at her, "Sonia."  
  
“Yes.” She smiles, and stretches out her hand in a handshake. "Nice to meet you."  
  
Tanaka gazes at her hand cautiously, and taps it with a callous fingertip. "Nice to meet you." He copies, the intonation all out of place and awkward sounding, but it's a good start. Her smile widens and he narrows his eyes at her, like a cat making sense of a dog.  
  
She doesn't mind. She doesn't think he's noticed that he's starting to grow less wary of her, after all. Maybe they could be friends.  
  
"Good," she praises him, and emphasizes this with three exaggerated nods of the head, to which he returns, with something akin to acceptance in his sharp features.  
  
They make their way back to Sonia's clearing together, and though Tanaka is hyper aware of the fire, Sonia just lies down beside it and watches the tiny sparks fly off into the night sky.  
  
"I'm going to teach you my language," she decides, telling her companion this despite his lack of comprehension skills. He doesn't react to the statement, but perks up ever so slightly at the sound of her voice. "And when I do," she continues, "I hope that you can tell me more about yourself."  
  
Tanaka peers at her curiously, and says nothing, opting for pulling a mushroom from the ground and tossing it into the fire.  
  
Sonia laughs. "I take it you don't like mushrooms, then?"  
  
"No." He nods hesitantly, as if afraid she asked another question and his prediction had been wrong, but she reassures him with another smile.  
  
"Good, you're learning already!"

* * *

In the weeks following, Sonia practically forgets to feel homesick because she’s so busy teaching that she hasn’t got a moment of rest. It’s exhausting, no doubt, but Tanaka is probably the most adept learner she could ever have the pleasure of teaching, and it has gotten to the point where he can occasionally string sentences together so fluently he could put poets in Novoselic to shame. 

Her greatest regret is not wishing her mother a happy birthday, but she figures she must learn to survive on this island until she can think of a way to return, and passing the time with Tanaka is not entirely a bad thing, after all.  
  
“Sonia,” she hears him calling, and she turns. He jerks his head towards the south – she’s been learning a few things from him as well, it seems – and says, “I have a divine attraction for you to peruse!”

“A divine attraction?”

He ducks his head a little, in that endearing way Sonia has learned meant that he was unsure of his words. “I don’t know, what, er, names it…”

She shoots him a gentle smile, “It’s ‘I don’t know what it’s called’,” she informs him. “But I think your name for it is lovely. Show me.”

He nods, and starts to scamper off, before remembering that she is not as agile as him and slows down. They had gotten better around each other, and Sonia had learnt a few tricks in the forest, but she was still miles away from being one with the wild; whereas Tanaka knew every inch of the island like the back of his hand.

“You must learn to possess higher power,” he grumbles to her, and Sonia laughs.

“Maybe I shall! But it will take a while, so you’re going to have to be patient.”

The ‘divine attraction’ Tanaka brings her to is, in fact, a little stone cottage on the outskirts of the forest. It’s old, and slightly crumbly, but it’s clearly been stable enough to endure for years – decades, even – and Sonia can’t help but admire it. It’s like a breath of fresh air to her, after she hadn’t seen hints of civilisation for weeks, but thanks to Tanaka, it doesn’t make her heart ache with longing as it might’ve had she been alone.

He gauges her reaction to it intently, before looking at the cottage expectantly.

“Will you enter?” He asks, voice pleasant.

“Of course,” she beams, and approaches it with the will of an explorer, and the grace of a guest. It may not have been his dwelling, but there is no shame in being courteous!

However, those such thoughts leave her mind when she looks at the host in question. After her nod of approval, Tanaka enters the household through a window, which Sonia shakes her head at, but she is understandably delighted enough to come across such a find that she doesn’t scold him for it.

“No-one lives here?” She asks him once they are inside, running her hand over the dusty bookshelf, the reader within her coming alive upon recognizing the language. Across the spines of the books read titles such as ‘Across the Seven Seas’, ‘Treasure Island’, and ‘Ghost of the Gold Mines’. Sonia pulls out the last, flipping through the crusty yellow pages with an eye of interest.

“Never!” he answers with a flourish, tugging down the curtains in the corner and leaving them to lie on the floor. A dust cloud flies up, and Sonia covers her mouth, as to not breathe it all in.

“Hey, do not tear it apart!” she says, good-naturedly. “Go sit on the bed. I’ll tell you a story.”

“Heh. Today? Not a story. You must examine this mysterious document!”

Sonia blinks, and raises her head at ‘mysterious document’. Tanaka holds a leather journal in his hands, the pages falling slowly apart.

“Be careful with that,” she tells him, and he puts the pages back in, setting the journal on the writing desk. Sonia puts her book down, curiosity piqued, and goes to take a look at it. It says ‘Tanaka’ on the front, in Japanese. Another word proceeds it, but the kanji is so faded that Sonia can hardly make sense of it.  

“Oh,” she gasps. “Is this where you…?”

“It was this mortal scribe which bestows upon me my name.”

She traces the characters with a delicate touch, wondering if perhaps reading the journal would change anything she knows about her companion. For a start, she muses as she opens to the first page, she will have to practise her Japanese if she has any hopes to translate it.

Tanaka comes towards her and points to it, “Foreign script. I cannot decipher it, even though you dutifully taught me to read.”

“You only know the English alphabet.” Sonia corrects. “This is Japanese. It will take quite a bit longer to learn.”

“I will learn.” He says decisively, and the princess cannot ignore the resolve in his voice.

“I’ll teach you,” she promises. “Do you want me to translate this for you as well?”

He snatches the journal back, and places it on the uppermost shelf – beyond Sonia’s reach. She has half a mind to snap at him for it, but remembers her place as a guest and his lack of human interaction and immediately forgives him. He looks at the journal with the strength of calm in his voice, “I will read it, then, when I can read it.”

“Okay,” she whispers with a fond smile. Then she looks back over at the bookshelf, “So do you want to hear a story?”

* * *

They both slave over the Japanese language for some time after that, but it being Sonia’s second language and Tanaka’s being excessively impatient stifles their progress much more than it should have. As the weeks pass by once more, their interactions grow lesser as Sonia works to clean up the cottage and Tanaka studies furiously between his hunts for food and tending to injured creatures. More often than not, he gets frustrated with himself for not remembering a character or a word, and Sonia can do nothing but watch him storm off into the trees, cursing the hell out of the language they’re both struggling to make heads and tails out of.

Because he feels he owes it to her, Sonia is also given permission to stay at the cottage, but Tanaka hates the indoors and spends little time with her when she is inside.  

She grows accustomed to him coming in and out – he knows nothing of the rules of civilisation after all – and it eventually just becomes a routine for Sonia to find him at her door in the morning and disappearing whenever he likes.

However, the dull ache of homesickness soon makes its steady return. Without her companion at her side to pepper her incessantly with questions, or lessons to teach about everything and anything she knows, Sonia finds herself more and more submerged in her own thoughts, and her thoughts always lead back to home.

She misses the concrete paths and the pretty limestone fountains. She misses waking up to trumpets sounding, and going to bed kissing her parents goodnight. She misses the sounds of bustling people and raucous laughter and merriment; so common in the streets of Novoselic, though she had at one point found it quite a bit too noisy to work in.

Tanaka does not understand her feelings, and tells her simply, “If you are here, then your home does not want you.”

And she’s furious that he could say something like that; but she can’t retaliate with anything so she leaves it be.

“It’s okay,” he sometimes will add. “Nobody wants me, either.”

But it does little to comfort her.

* * *

One day, a miracle happens.

As for who would consider it a miracle, Sonia does not know, but it is a miracle and that is the most of it. Ships from her kingdom arrive on the coast, and Tanaka informs her of this by claiming “They have planted trees in the ocean, with monstrous white leaves! The blood of Thor boils for this unnatural mutiny!”

She tells him through a hopeful smile that those would be called ‘ships’, and he seems to withdraw from her after that.

The Novoselic guard storm onto the island, and upon finding Sonia, she is shocked to see no less than the majority of the soldiers shed a tear.

“Princess Nevermind!” The head knight calls out to her, dropping to his knees in relief. “You’re alive!”

She steps onto the beach in all her bare-footed, wild glory – almost ashamed to appear before them so untidily – and commands them to their feet. “How are things?” She asks, “My parents? The kingdom?”

“Perfectly in mourning for you!” Supplies another knight, stretching out their arms for emphasis. “The Queen wept for days, and the King has searched far and wide. We’ve feared the worst, Your Highness! But you’re right here, safe and sound… it’s a miracle.”

“We are so glad to find you.” The head knight tells her, bowing his head down in reverence. “Our Princess Sonia.”

She commands him to his feet once more, and tilts her head to the side. “Do you know how I got here?”

“Not a hint. But what matters is that you’re safe.” The knight replies, looking back towards the ship. “Prepare for sailing again, everyone. We can’t rest now that the princess is in our hands.”

“We’re leaving?”

The knight glances back at her, surprised. “You mean we’re not?”

Sonia laces her fingers together and wonders. She had wanted so desperately to go home, but now that the chance had finally arrived, she was hesitant to take that step. On the island, she had found something irreplaceable, and she knew there was no way she would get it back after returning to Novoselic.

More importantly, what would become of Tanaka after she left? He had shown his true colors in their time together – he was intelligent, witty, intuitive, and most of all, he was kind. Was she to simply let him spent the rest of his life alone on the island?

“I have one thing I want to do,” she quickly informs the guard, and before any of the knights can protest, Sonia speeds back into the forest to look for the man that had opened her eyes to a new world.

“Tanaka!” She calls out, making her way up the tallest tree in the forest – Tanaka had told her that it was the wise tree, and it granted wishes, so she hopes with all her might that it can grant this wish for her – “Tanaka! Where are you?”

Peering over the leafy canopy, Sonia surveys the island, trying to spot a movement of trees or the call of animals to alert her to his presence. “Tanaka!”

She sees him, finally, in the midst of the clearing she had first set alight all those weeks ago. To her right, she spots a long, spiralling vine, and she makes a brave jump. She uses all the agility he had taught her to get to their meeting place, filled with the thrill of nature she had felt on her first night on the island, but now accompanied with the burning sensation of hope.

“Tanaka!” She calls out, when she lands in the clearing, a mere few strides away from his person. He stands from his squatting position and regards her with a strange coldness.

“Stop.” He commands, when she starts towards him. “If you value your life, do not come any closer to me.”

“What are you talking about?” She asks, blue eyes regarding him with what she feels may potentially be rejection.

“Your … people. They have come for you. Go home. Leave me be.”

Sonia hesitates. “What will you do?” She asks, clenching her fists.

“I will remain here, and take care of the Tanaka empire, of course.” He turns away from her, and looks up at the sky. Birds chirp as they flock across it, casting spots of shadow as they pass under the sun.

Her gaze softens. She couldn’t take him away from this place. She knew that from the start. Still, she questions, in the gentlest manner she can muster, “You don’t want to come with me?”

“It is not an issue of what I want, and what I don’t.” He replies curtly. “I cannot get along with humans.”

“You get along with me.”

Sonia sees him smile a little, before he sighs reluctantly. “I suppose.”

“Can I at least give you a parting gift?”

Tanaka shakes his head. “Not a thing. Such frivolities are useless to me.”

Regardless, the princess inches slowly towards him, and she’s pleased to find that she’s somehow grown stealthy enough not to warrant his notice; as he is visibly shocked when she places a hand on his shoulder. “I said don’t come closer!” he shouts, though he doesn’t remove her hand. Her grip tightens on his bare skin. “Stop being foolish! What are you doing?!”

Wordlessly, Sonia moves onto her tiptoes, letting them sink into the muddy earth as she pecks him daintily on the lips. It’s soft, and sweet and only lasts a moment, but that moment it enough. When she breaks away, he is stunned speechless, and she beams.

“What,” he grunts through his teeth, his face slowly turning a bright shade of red. “What was that.”

“A kiss.” She smiles, placing her hands behind her back. “Why?”

“What is ‘a kiss’?”

“Hm, I would say… it means ‘I love you’.” Sonia answers simply, half-wondering how on earth everything came true under the weight of those three words and half-amused in watching as Tanaka’s blush creeps down his neck. He tries to hide his face, but fails.

“W- _what?!_ Of all the foolish things!”

“What foolish things?” She inquires, eyes bright and blue as the sky above them, “If I love you, then I love you, and there’s nothing you can do about it!”

“…!” He doesn’t seem to have a response for this, and alternates between glaring at her and looking everywhere but at her, but Sonia has said her part and is ready to go.

“I’ll come back one day,” she promises. “But right now, I have to return. I have to let everyone know that I’m alright. My parents deserve to know that I’m alright. All thanks to you.”

“… you don’t have to come back.” He mumbles, crossing his arms. The glow in his cheeks is dying down, but he still appears as stiff and awkward as if he were meeting her again for the first time. Sonia giggles.

“I want to come back.” She answers confidently, sweeping blonde hair over her shoulder and smiling cheekily, “Unless I’m not welcome here?”

“You are!” is his immediate response, before his hand shoots to his mouth and he turns red again. He starts to ramble, which she picks up as a nervous habit of his and lets him at it. “N…naturally, of course! You have performed for me a great favor, and therefore the universe smiles upon you wherever you may venture! Come back, you ask? Come if the gods desire it!”

 The princess laughs, and pats him lightly on the shoulder once more. “Thank you, truly. If you want to ever want to come back with me, only say the word. You know that, right?”

“I know,” he affirms. “The all-seeing eye knows all.”

“I’ll see you again soon, Tanaka.” It’s a bittersweet feeling, parting with him after so many weeks together, but Sonia remembers the words she told herself so many times in the past; “Princesses must learn to overcome adversity”, and takes it into her stride as she starts her long trek back to the beach. Every step of the way brings her memories of her time on the island – from the mushrooms on the ground that Tanaka hates, to the nooks and crannies where little creatures lie; whereupon she and Tanaka took their time looking after, when the poor things were too weak to look after themselves.

She would come back one day, she is sure of it. Even if she has to swim here. Or paddle herself on a raft. Perhaps she could somehow find a wizard to teleport her here? Or, would she have to make a contract with the devil?

She’s broken out of these impossible thoughts when her skirt snags on something, and she turns around to find the source of the obstacle when cold lips press ever so lightly against her own, and she starts.

Tanaka hangs upside down from one of the vines above her, and immediately looks away when she stares earnestly at him.

“You…” she begins, but she does not know what to say.

“Farewell, Sonia,” he says quickly, before hoisting himself upright and making a speedy ascent into the trees.

“Wait!” Freeing her skirt, she latches onto the tree opposite, and climbs up at an alarming pace to keep up with him. “Tanaka, wait! Come back!”

The chase reminds her a little of their first encounter, but to her pleasant surprise, he stops at her word, and waits for her to catch up, and land onto the largest bough of the big wishing tree.

“You kissed me,” she exclaims with delight, after he catches her, and her arms snake around his neck. “Does that mean you love me, too?”

He nuzzles his head into her hair, and she can feel the heat radiating from his face. “You must be less forward, my lady. You will poison my blood.”

“That’s a yes, right?” Sonia pulls back before he can reply, and meets him again in a kiss – one which he returns shyly, and she giggles. She holds his hands after they part, and says, “You’re making it harder and harder for me to want to leave, you know!”

“That was not my intention…!”

* * *

Sonia Nevermind does, in fact, go back home to Novoselic. And Tanaka gives her his journal as a memento. She spends much of her time translating it; “Ah, so his first name is actually _Gundam,_ and his birthday is on _December 14 th_…” but after all the celebrations (exactly 17 days, she counted!), and all the reunions, her parents waved her back on her journey with teary eyes.

She is still young, and still has the chance to chase her dreams, they said.

So she does.

She returns to the wild, where her heart soars with delight at every wonder of nature which greets her. She returns to a household smaller than her bathroom at the castle; and doesn’t complain a single bit. She goes to where her dreams come true – where she can live strong and free, and love be loved unconditionally.

She returns to that life, with a single future in mind;

“Gundam Tanaka!” Sonia yells across the clearing, fabric in hand, and he freezes in his tracks, ready to bolt at any given second.

“What?”

“You’re not running away this time!”

“I’m _not_ wearing those _despicable_ human garments!”

“Yes, you are!” She chases him down, now much more skilled at the action, and leaps onto him, tugging the shirt over his head. “You’re going to be a king!”

“I am already a king! Remove yourself, dark queen, I demand my freedom!”

“Come on,” Sonia pats down his hair, combing her fingers through it. “One ceremony is all I ask! Don’t you wish to be bound to me through a holy ritual?”

“…”

“You want to marry me, don’t you?” she kisses him softly on the nose. “I’m pleading with you. Just once. I want you to come to Novoselic and meet everyone. You can come straight back afterwards, I promise.”

They stare at each other for a while, Tanaka still fairly aggravated, but he eventually sighs – and Sonia smiles. He was never good at resisting her charm. “Just … this once, I will allow it.” He finally says, mouth quirked downwards in distaste.

“I love you,” she whispers, tucking her arms beneath him and hugging him tightly.

“I … love you, too.” He tells her, hiding his face once again in her hair.

And for that, Sonia thinks, she would quite like to become one with the earth. So long as she could stay with Tanaka in this wondrous place, their hearts beating as one, under the loving warmth of the sunlight and the gracious passion of the wild.


End file.
